E89 Z4 Track-ready Sleeper Build
- Thread starter Asbjorn
- Start date
Next step: Custom tuning
The car is now running perfectly with the new hardware, and in combination with the original ESS 15psi (peak) tune. Therefore I am ready to do a custom track-ready tune. I ordered the precision raceworks ignition and one step colder NGK 95770 spark plugs (.020" gap), and intend on tuning the car for Chinese RON 98 / 92 octane fuel together with BQ tuning who knows the Z4 DCT well.
VTT states the GC lites can handle 18-21psi on the track for a long time, while 24-25psi should be a good range if power is the main priority. Based on this I would love to target 19-20psi, but according to BQ tuning Chinese fuel may be a limiting factor. Therefore I conclude:
Current: 14-15psi peak (great for longivity on oem turbos (similar to 35is overboost), but way too easy for the GC lites)
Realistic goal: 17-18psi
Dream goal for track-readiness: 19-20psi (but may require better fuel / injection)
GC lites sweet spot: 24-25psi (but not for +30min track sessions)
The car is now running perfectly with the new hardware, and in combination with the original ESS 15psi (peak) tune. Therefore I am ready to do a custom track-ready tune. I ordered the precision raceworks ignition and one step colder NGK 95770 spark plugs (.020" gap), and intend on tuning the car for Chinese RON 98 / 92 octane fuel together with BQ tuning who knows the Z4 DCT well.
VTT states the GC lites can handle 18-21psi on the track for a long time, while 24-25psi should be a good range if power is the main priority. Based on this I would love to target 19-20psi, but according to BQ tuning Chinese fuel may be a limiting factor. Therefore I conclude:
Current: 14-15psi peak (great for longivity on oem turbos (similar to 35is overboost), but way too easy for the GC lites)
Realistic goal: 17-18psi
Dream goal for track-readiness: 19-20psi (but may require better fuel / injection)
GC lites sweet spot: 24-25psi (but not for +30min track sessions)
Last edited:
I am very interested to see how this works out, and what you and Dimitri figure out about the fuel there. Please post your datazap account URL when you guys get going. Great build. Good luck and keep us posted!
Filippo
Filippo
So did a couple of quick slides with the new quaife lsd, and my impression is that it locks more quickly compared to the brake-assisted OEM system. It also feels more predictable and smooth on drift exit. Loving it so far, but wont get to try it on the track until the end of this month.
Alright, what we did this week was installing the SSP DCT oil cooler kit, which included a baffled DCT oil pan.
I opted for brand new DCT oil, filter and gasket. The gasket is known to start leaking with time, and has already been replaced once on this car.
The kit also came with an oil pump and huge black cooler
Here's an overview of the complete nose job
We also installed a flip switch hidden inside the tray on the left side of the steering wheel. It controls both the pump for the auxiliary engine oil cooler and the dct oil cooler. No changes were done to the DME software.
I opted for brand new DCT oil, filter and gasket. The gasket is known to start leaking with time, and has already been replaced once on this car.
The kit also came with an oil pump and huge black cooler
Here's an overview of the complete nose job
We also installed a flip switch hidden inside the tray on the left side of the steering wheel. It controls both the pump for the auxiliary engine oil cooler and the dct oil cooler. No changes were done to the DME software.
Custom tuning has started, and you can follow the progress here:
https://datazap.me/u/asbjoern/
I have never logged by car before, and I am certainly no expert on analyzing these.
https://datazap.me/u/asbjoern/
I have never logged by car before, and I am certainly no expert on analyzing these.
Here's a quick summary of the datalogs uploaded to my datazap account so far. X-axis is time, primary Y-axis is RPM and secondary Y-axis is boost psi.
It seems at around 18-19psi we are getting close to the limits of Chinese RON 98 fuel (92 octane) with the stock HPFP.
3rd gear 3000-6000 RPM times:
| ESS stg 2 | 4.7s |
| BQ base | 4.4s |
| BQ v2 | 4.1s |
| BQ v7 | 3.9s |
Last edited:
Since yesterday, tuning of the car's power has more or less finished. The resulting WOT log can be seen here
https://datazap.me/u/asbjoern/bq-v7-map-session?log=1&data=3-21
We ended up at 18-19psi with Chinese RON 98 fuel which is awesome. Then today I took the car to Ningbo Int'l Racepark to get a better feel for the car's current track readiness. Of course it rained like crazy most of the day, but I managed to get a few laps anyway. Here are my conclusions:
Engine ■■■■□
The car's WOT power delivery is awesome, and inspires to rev it out. The M4 flywheel is also a gem. Part-throttle, power-delivery can be a bit surprising, so we need to work on that. I also got an 30ff boost leak fault after a few laps, so I need to get that sorted first. (Edit: it later turned out one of the vacuum canisters had punctured due to overheating)
Brakes ■■□□□
Unfortunately the brakes started vibrating already after two laps (4km circuit). I am told I need better pads, as apparently my EBC yellowstuff are overheating. I ordered race pads, and hope that solves the problem.
Handling ■■■■□
Love the HR sway bars and all the M suspension bushings front and rear. Weight transfer is greatly reduced, even with the soft OEM springs I am running. I also like the increased power response from the stiffer sub-frame and diff bushings. The new seats are fantastic as well.
Front camber is still on the low side, but that is fine (read:safe) while I am still learning. I also conclude that the Quaife LSD does not improve the DSC=on experience, so the car still needs to be driven with DSC=off on the track. Finally I still think the AD08R tires are great value for money, but of course there are better tires out there to try next. But for now, the only handling mod I am doing next, is to try the stiffest setting on the rear sway bar.
Cooling ■■■□□
I made a post here about temp logging results from the track session
https://bmw.spoolstreet.com/threads/oil-temperature-problem.3582/page-2#post-48324
The conclusion is that I need to facilitate better airflow through the engine oil coolers. I did not experience any limp modes, but engine oil temps are still rising too quickly. The SSP DCT cooler and VRSF race FMIC are both doing very well so far.
I will try to fix the pads, cooling and boost leak next month so I can have another go at Ningbo Racepark. Hopefully the PR ignition also arrives mid July.
https://datazap.me/u/asbjoern/bq-v7-map-session?log=1&data=3-21
We ended up at 18-19psi with Chinese RON 98 fuel which is awesome. Then today I took the car to Ningbo Int'l Racepark to get a better feel for the car's current track readiness. Of course it rained like crazy most of the day, but I managed to get a few laps anyway. Here are my conclusions:
Engine ■■■■□
The car's WOT power delivery is awesome, and inspires to rev it out. The M4 flywheel is also a gem. Part-throttle, power-delivery can be a bit surprising, so we need to work on that. I also got an 30ff boost leak fault after a few laps, so I need to get that sorted first. (Edit: it later turned out one of the vacuum canisters had punctured due to overheating)
Brakes ■■□□□
Unfortunately the brakes started vibrating already after two laps (4km circuit). I am told I need better pads, as apparently my EBC yellowstuff are overheating. I ordered race pads, and hope that solves the problem.
Handling ■■■■□
Love the HR sway bars and all the M suspension bushings front and rear. Weight transfer is greatly reduced, even with the soft OEM springs I am running. I also like the increased power response from the stiffer sub-frame and diff bushings. The new seats are fantastic as well.
Front camber is still on the low side, but that is fine (read:safe) while I am still learning. I also conclude that the Quaife LSD does not improve the DSC=on experience, so the car still needs to be driven with DSC=off on the track. Finally I still think the AD08R tires are great value for money, but of course there are better tires out there to try next. But for now, the only handling mod I am doing next, is to try the stiffest setting on the rear sway bar.
Cooling ■■■□□
I made a post here about temp logging results from the track session
https://bmw.spoolstreet.com/threads/oil-temperature-problem.3582/page-2#post-48324
The conclusion is that I need to facilitate better airflow through the engine oil coolers. I did not experience any limp modes, but engine oil temps are still rising too quickly. The SSP DCT cooler and VRSF race FMIC are both doing very well so far.
I will try to fix the pads, cooling and boost leak next month so I can have another go at Ningbo Racepark. Hopefully the PR ignition also arrives mid July.
Last edited:
Went to practice a bit of drifting with my old stock wheels today. Below is a short video from the session [edit: deleted as it expired]. It ended after only 30mins due to a disintegrated drivers side rear tire, and even a punctured front tire. The Quaife diff did great though, although it does not make that much of a difference in the dry.
This time I tried running with the OEM oil cooler fan turned on. Unfortunately this did not keep the engine oil temp from rising. Next I am adding fans to the aux oil cooler to see if that helps.
This time I tried running with the OEM oil cooler fan turned on. Unfortunately this did not keep the engine oil temp from rising. Next I am adding fans to the aux oil cooler to see if that helps.
Last edited:
I've been following your build, and am generally impressed by the route you've gone with the car.
However when I read about you adding the fan I thought to myself "Well that's retarded," but I didn't want to say anything and hoped everything in combo would work. Now that it hasn't, that was a retarded idea, sorry not sorry.
Fans on any front-mounted radiator become an air flow restriction at very low speeds, as early as 10mph in some cases. And by 50mph, there's not a fan out there that's moving more air than the air flow from speed. Therefore they are restrictions to airflow at speed. The reason we have fans is simple, that's for low speed and idle conditions.
If I were you, I'd remove it first thing. Then I'd actually test before doing anything. You're not hitting limp modes. Oil temp is rising, that's not necessarily a bad thing, nor is it unexpected. Take some logs on the track with oil temps, and see how high they're actually getting. If they're too high, then you need a bigger cooler, and/or better airflow to it, there's no other way without changing coolant temp targets.
Your input is very much appreciated. At the time, my thinking was to mainly use it for drifting were speeds are very low. Now that it has turned out it doesn't help, I believe a better strategy is to remove it, and open up the air flow instead by removing the chip protector in front of it.
As for the aux engine oil cooler, it is different in that it is placed at an angle, and in an open box (together with the horns etc), unlike the OEM cooler, were the air is forced through. It is also different in that it has an electric pump, and therefore oil flows through it at max rate, even when engine speed is low. Due to these reasons, I still believe I can get more cooling out of it by adding a fan or four. Now the question is if I should use pull configuration this time instead of push pull.
As for the cooling temp targets, I am already running the sport cooling mode in MHD. It definitely has an impact, but merely delays my problem as soon as I start going at it.
As for temp logging at the track, I posted my first log here with the aux oil cooler turned on, and the fan turned off. Please let me know what you think.
https://bmw.spoolstreet.com/threads/oil-temperature-problem.3582/page-2#post-48324
As a last resort, I could have a "track" tune made targeting for instance 16psi instead. But not sure if that would actually help or not. In any case, I need to move forward step by step.
Last edited:
You put a switch in there to control the pump(s)? I only see one pump? Also wouldn't you always want the pumps on, otherwise it blocks the flow of oil?
I posted a picture of the other pump on page two of this build thread:
Both coolers are pan connected and do not interfere with oil pressure etc. They just provide additional cooling (and prevent oil starvation) when the pumps are turned on.
You don't need this when engine and dct is warming up, and personally I keep the switch off 99% of the time on the street. With MHD sport mode, the oil temp already sits 10C lower than usual.
Last edited:
I did go back a page, but I was expecting something else. Very cool! If you have photos of the way you connect to the engine oil pan, that would be interesting as well. I see the SSP pan has the provisions on the side, so now this makes sense. So if I'm understanding this correctly, you also keep the oem heat exchanger for the dct? In the other post I made, I was assuming you had deleted this feature.
As for the engine oil aux cooler it basically draws oil from the front of the pan, and returns it at the rear, where the flow back to the front is limited slightly by a baffle. This prevents oil starvation behind the baffle where the engine oil pump pulls oil.
And yes, I kept the oem dct cooling functionality unaltered. The csf cooler is also the AT version, whatever that means to cooling performance.
Okay this is great information! Thank you.
You've inspired me to do something similar for the dct.
Quick update:
Did another track session at Ningbo Racepark. Session ended prematurely on lap 3 with a 2ABC fault (Charging pressure sensor, electrical) half check engine light. Car developed a whoosing sound on boost just before the fault.
Swapped the EBC yellowstuff with PB race pads. Now the vibration issue seems to be gone, so this was a big relief.
Removed the push-pull fans from the oem oil cooler. Here's the temperature data from the last lap. Ambient temp was +100F and humid.
Engine oil
116C at start of lap 3
132C at end of lap 3
Limp mode starts at 148C
Yellow warning light at 156C
Coolant
106C at start of lap 3
116C at end of lap 3
Limp mode starts at 117C
Yellow warning light at 120C
iat
50C at start
62C at end
(+100F outside)
Transmission
83C at start
88C at end
Here's the speed / rev / gear data from the lap.
Full datalog here:
https://datazap.me/u/asbjoern/bq-v9-map-3-laps-ningbo-racetrack
Preliminary conclusions and next steps:
1) Race pads are great.
2) I may want to consider an aux water cooler.
3) Fillippo and Barry suggest I consider the M-sport bumper to open up flow in general.
4) I need to find the root cause for the 2ABC fault and whooshing sound under boost. Currently running stock T-map sensor. (Edit: it turned out to be tuning related, and was solved with a map update)
Before this session I also installed PR ignition and loaded up the PR dwell times in MHD. The ignition seems to be working well. Happy with it so far.
Did another track session at Ningbo Racepark. Session ended prematurely on lap 3 with a 2ABC fault (Charging pressure sensor, electrical) half check engine light. Car developed a whoosing sound on boost just before the fault.
Swapped the EBC yellowstuff with PB race pads. Now the vibration issue seems to be gone, so this was a big relief.
Removed the push-pull fans from the oem oil cooler. Here's the temperature data from the last lap. Ambient temp was +100F and humid.
Engine oil
116C at start of lap 3
132C at end of lap 3
Limp mode starts at 148C
Yellow warning light at 156C
Coolant
106C at start of lap 3
116C at end of lap 3
Limp mode starts at 117C
Yellow warning light at 120C
iat
50C at start
62C at end
(+100F outside)
Transmission
83C at start
88C at end
Here's the speed / rev / gear data from the lap.
Full datalog here:
https://datazap.me/u/asbjoern/bq-v9-map-3-laps-ningbo-racetrack
Preliminary conclusions and next steps:
1) Race pads are great.
2) I may want to consider an aux water cooler.
3) Fillippo and Barry suggest I consider the M-sport bumper to open up flow in general.
4) I need to find the root cause for the 2ABC fault and whooshing sound under boost. Currently running stock T-map sensor. (Edit: it turned out to be tuning related, and was solved with a map update)
Before this session I also installed PR ignition and loaded up the PR dwell times in MHD. The ignition seems to be working well. Happy with it so far.
Last edited:
Similar threads
